Sunday, June 12, 2016

Green Caltrain: BART updates goals for Peninsula station access, thanks to city attention

Last week, the BART board adopted its station access policy, including higher aspirations to improve safe, sustainable access to Millbrae, San Bruno, and South San Francisco (and several other cities). The category upgrades owe thanks to attention from local city staff and residents who have been working on improvements to bike, pedestrian, and transit access, as those cities move forward on infill development in the station areas, and thanks to BART staff for taking city feedback into account.

San Bruno had been categorized as “auto-dependent”, while Millbrae and SSF had been categorized as “auto-reliant” into the foreseeable future. With the upgrade, these stations are now categorized as evolving toward “balanced intermodal”, which would see reduced drive alone rates below 40%, with better access by transit, bicycling, and walking.

As a next step, the BART board will review performance targets for November.

Thanks to everyone who spoke up. This is only the beginning, as it will take much more local attention to ensure that the Peninsula cities will do a good job of improving safe and sustainable access to BART stations over time.

At the same time the BART board approved a transit oriented development plan, supporting transit-oriented development including affordable housing near stations.